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Sifting the Karakum

One of the few independent outlets covering Turkmenistan from inside the country is raising the alarm about the arrest of a correspondent.

Alternative News of Turkmenistan said Saparmamed Nepeskuliev, who lives in the city of Balkanabad, was detained on July 7 in the port city of Turkmenbashi after a reporting trip to the resort of Awaza. News of his arrest only reached his colleagues on July 28.

Nepeskuliev also worked as a freelance reporter for the Turkmen service of U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Alternative News of Turkmenistan said that Nepeskuliev phoned relatives on the day of his disappearance to inform them that he was due to return to Balkanabad at 4 p.m. that same day and that he was going to take a swim before his departure.

Subsequently, there was no further communication and his telephone was turned off.

Nepeskuliev’s relatives contacted the police after several days to issue a missing person report. Police officers suggested Nepeskuliev might have drowned and contacted the morgue in Turkmenbashi, but nobody there could confirm they had processed anybody matching the description.

After investigations by the family, it was discovered that Nepeskuliev was being held in a prison in the village of Akdash, around 20 kilometres east of Turkmenbashi.

Relatives say Nepeskuliev was accused of carrying pills allegedly containing narcotic substances (presumed to be Tramadol) and that court hearings were to take place shortly.

Family members have not been permitted to see Nepeskuliev. Alternative News of Turkmenistan said there are concerns that Nepeskuliev may have been mistreated and that he has been given no legal representation.

President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on June 29 got a public park named after him to mark his 58th birthday.

What birthday present do you get for the man who has everything?

In Turkmenistan, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on June 29 got a public park named after him to mark his 58th.

It was a fun day, for the president. As by tradition, Berdymukhamedov was congratulated by his deputy prime ministers and foreign business community representatives, who always seize any opportunity to curry favor.

The opening ceremony came in the evening. The park in the capital, Ashgabat, has been called Arkadag, the Turkmen word for “protector,” which is how the president is known in state media.

Officials have said the park was built at the urging of the general public. This formulation has become the norm used as an apparent justification for the cult of adulation accumulating around Berdymukhamedov.

Last month, a gold-leafed statue of the president atop a horse was unveiled to much marshaled revelry.

Thousands of people carrying flags and banners stood for several hours under punishing 40 degree Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) heat ahead of the park opening. Some resourceful female teachers sheltered from the sun under umbrellas, although that did little to mitigate the intense discomfort.

The inauguration was prefaced by a solemn procession along a downtown avenue by the venerable grey-bearded village elders that typically attend such events. They were accompanied by employees of art and culture institutions and many local residents and young people.

Notwithstanding the heat, government workers did the long walk in exhausting heat in their black suits and long national dresses, energetically waving flags and balloons all the while. Smart formal appearance and scenes of jubilation are a must for the sake of the television pictures.

Not that it was ever in doubt, but now it is official: Turkmenistan’s president plans to grow old in power.

As speaker of parliament Akja Nurberdieva explained in remarks televised May 29, the constitutional commission is studying two proposals that will likely end with Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov serving indefinitely.

One provision would scrap the 70-year age limit at which a president can be elected. The other would extend the presidential term from five to seven years.

Under the current constitution, Berdymukhamedov, 57, would have been allowed to run for only three more five-year terms. The next presidential election had been slated for 2017, but that date could be pushed back to 2019.

Who chairs the constitutional commission that will decide on the changes? Why, the president of course.

Turkmenistan’s first president, Saparmurat Niyazov, dispensed with such fiddly legalities in December 1999, when parliament declared him president for life. As it turned out, that was only seven years anyway, as Niyazov dropped dead in 2006.

As has become usual, the impetus for the proposed constitutional reforms is being attributed to public demand.

Another constitutional fix for which people are clamoring, according to Berdymukhamedov, involves provisions for who will take over as caretaker should the serving president be unable to fulfill his duties.

That task should fall to the speaker of parliament, said Berdymukhamedov in the same state television report.

The irony here is that this was already the law before Niyazov’s death. Rules were quickly changed at the behest of the State Security Council to ensure that then-deputy Prime Minister Berdymukhamedov be quickly jostled into power.

Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov solidified his role as the isolated country’s “protector” and leading equestrian on May 25, unveiling the first gold-plated statue of himself.

Officials say the 21-meter statue, cast in bronze and covered in 24-carat gold leaf, was built to satisfy public demand. It is named “The Protector,” for Berdymukhamedov’s adopted title, and features the strongman with his right hand outstretched and a dove perched upon it. Some have ridiculed it for bearing an uncanny resemblance to a statue of Peter the Great in Russia’s second city, St Petersburg.

Berdymukhamedov is not famous for originality. He has persistently built his own cult of personality while dismantling that of Saparmurat Niyazov, the Turkmenbashi, who died in 2006 after scattering golden busts and statues of himself across the gas-rich nation.

Notably, Berdymukhamedov has relegated to the suburbs a statue of Niyazov that rotated to face the sun. He has also gradually phased out Niyazov’s Ruhnama, or “Book of the Soul,” which was required reading in schools and government offices.

In hindsight it is clear that these moves were less about dismantling an old cult and more about making space for a new one.

In recent years Turkmenistan’s pliant and obsequious parliament has bestowed horse-mad Berdymukhamedov with titles such as “Master Jockey-Mentor of Turkmenistan” and “People’s Horse Breeder.” He has also authored a range of books, on horses among other things, and elevated his father, Myalikguli Berdymukhamedov, to the status of a living demigod. (In a nod to Central Asian patriarchy, Myalikguli got a monument before his son – though it is not covered in gold.)

With the world’s fourth largest gas reserves, Turkmenistan has enough to keep everybody happy. But for the remote Central Asia country and its suitors, taking the potential and turning it into a prize has proven persistently difficult.

Last week, the European Union’s energy boss, Maros Sefcovic, was in Ashgabat speaking positively – some might even say delusionally – about a $5-billion-plus trans-Caspian pipeline that would pump up to 30 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas underneath the world’s largest inland sea and onto markets in Europe. The link, Sefcovic said, in comments reported by AFP and Reuters, could be ready to pump by 2019.

But it was another proposal he made – about a pipeline across Iran – that has intrigued analysts.

Other than China, which imports upwards of 35 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Turkmen gas per year, Turkmenistan sells to Russia (4 bcm) and Iran (around 10 bcm). Both are net exporters and perennially threaten to cut their imports. Russia made good on its threat earlier this year by reducing imports from around 10 bcm.

While Sefcovic was talking up the Trans-Caspian Pipeline, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was playing down another connection viewed as vital to Turkmenistan’s ambitions: The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI) which has been on drawing boards since the 1990s and could cost as much as $10 billion.

Before the horse races, there was the horse beauty contest, and the show was stolen by a stallion named Neutrality. The horse’s lucky owner netted a Toyota Land Cruiser on behalf of his prized steed.

Turkmenistan’s Day of the Horse has been an important fixture in the Turkmenistan-watchers’ calendar ever since equestrian-in-chief Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov flew over the reins face first immediately after winning a fixed race during the celebration in 2013.

This year festivities were less notable, although the president did manage to net himself another title, and shine a spotlight on an up-and-coming political jockey.

Berdymukhamedov was named the “People’s Horse Breeder” on April 26 to an outpouring of adulation from his cowed public.

“Glory to the protector!” the crowd at Ashgabat’s International Equestrian Sport Complex reportedly chanted, according to AFP.

Unlike “Arkadag” – the “Protector,” which Berdymukhamedov adopted as his official epithet in 2011 – this title is probably one he deserves. Berdymukhamedov has done more than anyone to elevate the cult of the horse in his hermit kingdom. In addition to building an impressive complex outside the capital to house the revered Akhal-Teke breed, he supposedly penned a book on the creatures.

But apart from Berdymukhamedov’s headline-grabbing new title, the standout take away from 2015's Day of the Horse was another racing victory for his teenage grandson, Kerimguly Berdymukhamedov. The younger Berdymukhamedov was also first past the post in a dash to mark the beginning of the autumn horse-riding season last year.

Satellite dishes are ubiquitous in Ashgabat. The government wants them gone.

According to rights watchdogs and the crumbs of independent reporting coming out of Turkmenistan, the authoritarian government is busy stripping homes of their satellite receivers, plunging the insulated country further into isolation.

At the end of March, 2015, local housing authorities in the capital, Ashgabat, and its suburbs started ordering residents of multi-story apartment buildings to take down their satellite dishes, citing simply an “order from above” that allegedly stated the dishes ruined the view of the city. Authorities told residents they could instead get cable television packages through the government or state satellite antennae.

Girls just want to have fun, Cyndi Lauper once sang. But in totalitarian Turkmenistan, having fun can spell trouble, especially if evidence lands on the Internet.

In the days since a video clip featuring a posse of schoolgirls in national dress rocking out to California-based Far East Movement’s party song “Turn Up the Love” turned up on YouTube, authorities have launched a nationwide crackdown on mobile phones in schools, a dissident-run website claims. The video currently has over 38,000 views.

Western music is officially frowned upon in Turkmenistan, where cultural protectionism – at the cost of near total isolation from the world – is a trademark of the repressive regime.

Perhaps to challenge Turkmen society’s deeply ingrained perceptions of gender roles – or perhaps because there were no better props at hand – the sextet swung about with items associated with domestic chores. The lead singer appeared to be yelling into a mop. Two faux guitarists jammed on brooms while, provocatively, another used a mini Turkmen flag to bow a newspaper as if it were a violin.

According to the Chronicles of Turkmenistan – a news outlet run by exiles that is generally hard to fact-check – the government response has been swift:

Prosecutors in Lebap province (formerly Chardzhou region) have been touring schools in the region for the last week, checking cell phones for students that contain photos and videos.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tried to end uncertainty about Iran’s desire for Turkmenistan's gas during his first official visit to the gas-rich Central Asian country on March 11, promising an unspecified increase in imports.

Over the last few years, at least in terms of gas, Turkmenistan’s relationship with Iran has been second only to its relationship with Russia in volatility. Tehran makes occasional noises about boosting domestic production and doing away with a tiresome trade pickled with disputes.

But during his visit Rouhani confirmed that the Islamic Republic would up imports from Turkmenistan.

That must be music to Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s ears. The Turkmen economy has been struggling on the back of the sharp downturn in Russia and the slumping ruble; moreover, Moscow suddenly slashed imports of Turkmen gas last month.

Referring to increased transport links with Turkmenistan, such as the new Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway, Rouhani set an ambitious target for bilateral trade to grow by more than 15 times from its current $3.7 billion to $60 billion by 2020, his official president.ir website cited him as saying.

For his part, Berdymukhamedov was also effusive: “In recent years, given the growing cooperation in different fields, bilateral ties between Tehran and Ashgabat have taken on a new meaning,” said the Turkmen president, who also called Rouhani a “brother” in comments picked up by AFP.

A few weeks ago, Russia’s state-run Gazprom announced it would sharply and immediately cut the amount of gas it purchases from Turkmenistan. Now Turkmenistan’s authoritarian government has responded with a rare outburst. Unfortunately for Ashgabat, these days there’s not much it can do but screech.

Russia is an “unreliable partner,” a think-tank inside Turkmenistan’s own state energy company, Turkmengaz, said in a February 16 rant published on its website.

The article – “Will Gas Exports of Turkmen Gas to Russia Recover?” – criticizes Russia and Gazprom for all of the unhappiest moments in an up-and-down relationship that has seen deliveries of Turkmen gas to Russia drop from a peak of around 45 billion cubic meters per year (bcm) in 2008 to the 4 bcm the Russian giant says it will now import in 2015.

The piece expressed outrage at Gazprom’s failure to fulfill a 2008 agreement to build a Trans-Caspian pipeline and fingered Gazprom for an unexplained pipeline explosion in April 2009 that marked the beginning of the decline in its purchases.

Gazprom and its affiliates “periodically violate agreements at interstate, intergovernmental and interdepartmental levels,” the article notes.

About Sifting the Karakum

The Karakum, or "black sand" desert, covers 70 percent of Turkmenistan’s surface. Population is sparse there, with only one person per 2.5 miles. Rain might come once in a decade. Underneath this austere territory lies the ancient city of Merv, near today's Mary, whose ruins are still studied by scholars around the world, as well as a great deal of oil and gas, making Turkmenistan's reserves among the largest in the world.

Little of the country’s closed political system has changed since President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov succeeded long-time dictator Saparmurat Niyazov – the Turkmenbashi, or “father of all Turkmen” – in 2006. Civic activists continue to be harassed, detained, or forced to leave the country. All lines of power lead to the president, who maintains a harsh top-down management of subordinate officials who are constantly reprimanded, shuffled around, or dismissed for "shortcomings" and "negligence."

With so much of what happens in Turkmenistan hidden or deliberately suppressed, it is our hope to sift through what stories do emerge in domestic and international media, and attempt to see the true dimensions of a country whose impoverished people rarely see the benefits of their nation's tremendous wealth.

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